I can’t help but associate Spring with the color green. Green symbolizes rebirth somehow and the beginning of a warmer season when the new flowers begin to bloom, the grass begins to peek it’s head up from the cold melting blanket of snow, and nature begins to come alive with the warmer weather.

You should probably be prepared as Spring is right around the corner and what better way to brace yourself for the up coming season than with five great green eye shadows that are sure to help you kick off Spring!

For the budget friendly makeup girl try out Milani Runway Eyes Wet/Dry Eyeshadow in Leaf Green which is a sparkling light green that looks gorgeous on it’s own or paired up with a softer lilac or a darker green for a beautiful contrast! At around $4 USD this won’t break into your Spring budget. Get it this week at CVS during the Milani Buy One Get One 50% Off Sale!

Want to go a bit darker? Dark green always looks mysterious and alluring on brown eyes, take the Muse’s word for it! For a cheap, inexpensive dark green eye look try out Terra Eye Shadow in Emerald Green which runs around $6.49 to $7.49 USD at Duane Reade Drugstores.

If you want to step up your game and indulge in a sparkling green shadow try out Vincent Longo Wet/Dry Sparkling Eyeshadow in Verite. This dark green shade has plenty of sparkle and looks beautiful used wet or dry!

Urban Decay is known for it’s heavy duty sparkly eye shadows but Acid Rain has a nice silky finish sans glitter and packs plenty of soft Spring green that will light up your eyes!

Take your green abroad and indulge in a minty green shadow like Maquillage Eye Shadow in GR168. This minty green shade offers a different shade of green for Spring that’s unique and pleasing on any color eye!

Ho-hum! The Muse roped herself into purchasing a Maquillage Diamond Tear Gloss a few months ago and as she tested it she remembered why she avoids Maquillage like the plague.

Maquillage is a brand of make up exclusive to Japan that’s distributed by Shiseido, actually it’s one of several brands brought to you by our dearest Shiseido! Oh why oh why can’t the US catch up with this stuff?

Anyway!

I purchased Maquillage Diamond Tear Gloss on a whim in hopes that it would be better then Maquillage Neo Climax Lip Gloss but of course I should have known it’s about the same thing with very minor differences.

Now I originally didn’t like the formula of Neo Climax at all so I thought maybe by some slim chance that Diamond Tear Gloss had some sort of improvement on it but honestly I should have known better considering that Diamond Tear Gloss was released prior so if the formula was going to get better it would have gotten better with Neo’s introduction.

Diamond Tear Gloss has since left the shelves of Japanese drugstores I believe and has been quietly replaced with Neo Climax at least I believe it has however if you’re wanting it you can still nab it on E-bay or online shops. Mainly I hate the texture of the gloss because it has a bit of a silicon feel to it which in the long run actually allows the gloss to stay in place for hours but still feels very uncomfortable on which is my main beef with the product. Aside from the strange formula and texture the gloss does have a pretty good finish and nice shine plus is pigmented enough to wear alone as a lip color if you so please.

Dress down day for the Muse! Apologies for the hoodie

The applicator is the standard plastic tip which is very good as it fits well to the contour of the lips and glides the gloss on nicely without making a mess! Normally I prefer plastic spatulas however in this case the applicator is very good and not nearly as bad as the one on the Lavshuca Conc Rouge Gloss.

Many raves support the product including it’s great staying power but ado the Muse can’t get passed the uncomfortable silicon feeling on her lips and the raves just don’t hold up to that rant!

Not a stash for the Muse but sadly a trash! I don’t see myself making much use of this and I imagine it’ll end up in the same pile as my Neo Climax!

The Muse recommends nabbing yourself a nice lippie or gloss from Kiss or KATE and skip the Maquillage! You’ll thank me for it later!

Although it has it’s cult following Maquillage is not my favorite branch of Shiseido cosmetics. Maquillage has some seriously great releases just nothing that every caught my eye so much that I was panting after it!

However, after much debate I decided to indulge in a Shiseido Maquillage Neo Climax Lip after reading quite a few raves for this particular item.

Neo Climax Lip is a combination lipstick and gloss that comes in a rather slick push up style packaging. I love the packaging and the applicator. Twist and the applicator saturates with color, swipe across lips and done! The applicator is a smooth plastic head which I normally don’t fancy but in this case it works very well and fits comfortably to the contour of your lips while delivering color and gloss.

The formula is where the problems begin for me with this one. You may recall my review on L’Oreal Infalliable Lipgloss and one of my main rants with the product was the strange waxy feeling of the gloss Neo Climax Lip happens to sport a similar formula. Although I like both glosses it’s very difficult getting used to having a waxy film on your lips. In all fairness this particular formula allows the gloss to have super long lasting power however dealing with it all day is difficult. It just just feels like I have a mask around my lips which is rather weird.

Aside from my rant about the formula I have to say that the color I picked is so outstanding that I’ll definately be using this again even though the formula isn’t to my liking.

The color is a very light shimmering shade of peachy pink that matched so perfectly with my skin tone and just brightened up my entire face. It gave me both a look of health and innocence that was simply stunning or at least I thought so. I don’t have the number for this color at the moment but I’ll correct this post later today with the correct number. I believe it was PK 356 but don’t quote me on that.

I’ve been looking for a color like this my entire life it seems. It’s just a combination of peachy, pink, and sports that natural look to your lips.

I simply love it.

I was so deeply impressed with the color I’ve decided to Muse Approve Shiseido Maquillage Neo Climax Lip for purchase. I think I will be indulging in a few more colors and if they are anything like the one I tried I’m sure to be VERY pleased.

The Muse likes this one and is temporarily putting bad formulas aside and entertaining her joy for an amazing color!

Shiseido has quite a few different brands available exclusive to the Japanese market one of which is Maquillage. I know I’ve mentioned that before and many of you already know it as you’re as passionate about Japanese Cosmetics as I am however I thought it deserved a remention in my introduction because I have quite a flow of newer readers visiting with me lately and I thought that’d be a nice little way to introduce this review plus give them a little info about the brand.

Maquillage is not my favorite brand in the Shiseido line (I’m sure you can guess which my favorite is…go on comment and tell me!). For me Maquillage is a hit or miss sadly. Some products are really good and some aren’t so great. The price range is lovely, the packaging is fabulous, but the actual products are sometimes too sheer or not particularly the best quality in the world. I’m not that big a fan of the shadow compacts, the liners, or the glosses. However, I do give a better portion of my money to Maquillage on a rare occasion!

Today I’m reviewing Watery Crash Eyes from Maquillage. I don’t follow Maquillage as much as I do other Japanese brands so when something new is released I know of it but not when it was released so I’m unsure which collection these are from.

A very sweet friend of mine did some personal shopping for me in Tokyo last week and she picked up Watery Crash Eyes as a request from me. Sadly, I’m not quite so into it. The lemming for this came from the fact that it reminded me of Chanel’s Ombre D’eau Fluid Eyeshadow but the Maquillage price is much more affordable. The color selection isn’t vast by any means and this particular product is only offered in 5 colors. I got the PK213 which is a beautiful baby pink color.

Now I can’t fairly give this a poor review. The reason for that is the product is actually good and the problem is that I’m just too bloody picky with cosmetics.

The texture and formula is wonderful as it blends a real treat however a few things I don’t like about it are the finish which is more of a shine than a shimmer if that makes sense, I’m also not loving how much I need to use to get color onto my lid as this is very sheer, and finally I’m just not enjoying the total look it created for me.

As I was saying it blends very well, just dot and smooth on. The texture is thick and creamy. All and all I see no problem with the formula however it’s lack of shimmer kind of disappointed me. I should mention that I’m not a fan of cream shadows and honestly the main reason I had purchased this was because it not only reminded me of the Chanel but also Visee’s Aqua Shining Eyes so I was kinda hopeful this would be as good a quality as both of those.

The product is sheer so you have to do at least three layers to get some color onto your lid. One layer will not do much of anything. I noticed that it doesn’t dry fast either which is a good thing because if you mess up while blending you can easily go back and smooth your finger around a bit more without worrying about it being dry and messing the entire look up. This is particularly nice as well when you’re layering the color because you’re not packing color onto an already “dry” look.

My final look when I was done layering and blending wasn’t exactly great. No pop sadly. But as I said I can’t give it a bad review because the formula is very good (especially the fact it stays wet so long before setting which makes for ease of application). I’m just a nitpicker because I enjoy a bit more shimmer and the look I achieved was more of a shiny, neutral look!

If you enjoy simplicity without shimmer or pop this might very well be something you’d enjoy using. For myself I’m not loving it at the moment but I’m going to continue using it to see how I feel after a few weeks!